Wait does this mean the Vexor and the Arbitrator will get an built in Asteroid Scanner? 
They still have their 10% bonus to drone mining yield (Which please never remove itās a great piece of EVE history of how we used to do it)
I wonder why they didnāt build that into the survey scanner instead, so you can use the feature on any ship that fits the moduleā¦ Probably would have been too easy and intuitive 
Or remove Survey Scanners at all and give every ship a survey scan optionā¦
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I think the idea is to overall replace the Survey Scanner for Mining Orientated ships so it not only frees up a midslot but gives a better picture to the individual users.
You can use the survey scanner (which now is a passive mid slot module) to boost the survey scan feature and get better readings as well as less residue and better and more mining crits.
I never used the thing before but itās finally tempting to use one now!
Some images I made on the test server.
Scanner graphical effect on scanned rocks:
Scanner information with module equipped (gives insight in volume per asteroid and progress!):
Same asteroids but without the Mining Sensor Array equipped (no volume known and no progress):
The Mining Sensor Array itself with some nice residue and crit bonuses:
Scanner now gives rocks a colour based on ISK/m3 value, very useful!:
Now if only those ISK/m3 values are based on refined values Iād be completely happy.
the integrated scanning feature is a welcome addition and looks nice. the mining sensor array is basically a must slot now due to itās bonuses which eats up an extra mid slot. while i donāt see any problems on the mining destroyer (especially the T2 with 5 mids), the barges and exhumers could really need one additional slot. also, while trying to find fits for the command destroyer, cpu was really a problem (at least with 3 t2 mining laser upgrades). the cpu penality is really huge with 12.5% and the faction ones are SO much better that i think it would be ok to close the gaps slightly. an alternative would be to increase the benefits of the skill mining upgrades by a bit. that would help exhumers as well if they would indeed get one more mid slot. power grid was ok, wouldnāt mind to get ~15 more on the exhumers though.
Itās a very attractive slot indeed, but wouldnāt call it a āmust slotā just yet.
Seeing progress on how far you are with an asteroid is nice QoL.
Reduced residue is nice -if- you are using wasteful equipment.
Crits can be fun but arenāt nearly that impactful it seems.
Crit math:
Max skills give 1.5% crit chance at 250% extra yield that cycle.
This means on average once every 67 cycles you get a bonus 2.5 times your current cycles yield, like this:
At max skills a player gets on average 3.75% additional yield from mining crits.
The Mining Sensor Array adds 20% crit chance and 20% crit yield for 1.8% chance at 300% extra yield. This averages out to 5.4% yield from crits.
This means the Mining Sensor Array increases yield by a factor 1.054/1.0375 = 1.016, thus it adds 1.6% additional yield.
While extra yield is a nice bonus, itās not nearly as much as a T2 Mining Laser Upgrade that adds 9% yield. The QoL of the Mining Sensor Array in addition to the bonus stats makes the new Mining Sensor Array an attractive mining module. A lot more attractive than the old Survey Scanners, which I largely ignored.
This new mining module may even be worth giving up some resistances for!
Exactly that. I just think that barges/exhumers are already an easy target and a mid slot and some cpu would be justified.
Funny thing, the new Consortium Issue Pioneer and Venture with their 50% crit chance role bonus get more yield out of the crit bonuses of the Mining Sensor Array.
Their average yield is improved by 2.3% rather than 1.6%.
I was able to do a thorough test on the Singularity Test Server. This is my feedback so far
What I really like:
- Mining Destroyers look good and the T2 Version even has a mining hold bigger than Covetor and Procurer.
- Phased Mining is a cool activity and the moving of the bubble makes it interesting and also it looks gorgeous!
- I really like the Idea of Prismaticite and I had a lot of fun gambling for materials
- I really enjoyed the faster cycles!
- The new Mining Scanner is very cool and gives me a good and quick glance at what asteroid hold a lot of valuable ore. Also with the Sensor Array Module Iām actually able to see a healthbar and a total amount of units that remain.
- The Odysseus looks Gorgeous!
- I really enjoyed the new keybind for compressing all the ore in the current ship! - Cool Idea
- I loved the new indicator that shows you how full your ore hold is directly next to your ship so you donāt have to open your inventory anymore.
What I think needs improving:
- The current prices for the mining destroyers are a little bit too much I think. (I wasnāt able to have a look at the pioneer BPO on SiSi because it wasnāt showing but according to https://www.hoboleaks.space/ it will cost as much as building a T1 combat cruiser and that I think is too much for a small little T1 mining ship that should be tailored to new players as new goto (Alpha) mining ship.
If the numbers stay like that is way too overpriced in my opinion. - The Odysseus āRecipeā uses a Core Temperature Regulator which is usally only being used in Battleships recipes. I donāt see any reason why this would be inside the recipe of the Odysseus.
There is literally no other Command or Battlercruiser class ship in the game except the Odysseus using this. Also the amount of Preservation Seals, SoE Net Resonators and Life-Support Backup Units is too high in my opinion. You can almost build 2 Nestors for the same price. I think this needs some tuning
- The new Mining Scanner is unfortunately not very good for colorblind people because they donāt have a textual but only the color indicator for the asteroids.
- I donāt like the fact that you need 1 Rorqual, 2 Orcas or 3 Porpoise to power the Mobile Phase Anchor. That completely looks out solo players or small corps that donāt have that much command burst ships for these activities.
- Only 1.5% chance for a crit with all Mining Precision to V is a joke for me. I think that should be increase a little bit.
Unfortunately I wasnāt able to try out the reactions because there was literally no Refinery anywhere so I canāt really say much about this..
Iām looking forward to testing the mining destroyers and the Odysseus thoroughly on SiSi once they have been enabled.
Disclaimer: This is all mostly off the cuff theorycrafting, so without actually interacting with the content I can only provided extrapolation based on the live serverās ships, sites, and mining meta. It also comes from the perspective of someone who runs fleets that do significant travel through j-space or lowsec for ore (and occasionally high sec ice!), which skews the value of certain mining aspects.
Regarding the new mechanics Iāve got to test so far:
Mining Cycle Time Reduction
All ore mining modules have had their cycle time cut down by 75%.
Faster cycles seem to be more enjoyable for most people Iāve talked with, and it does help with overmining small asteroids. Generally a nice change. However, one potential problem is when mining high volume ore such as Bezdnacine or Arkonor with smaller ships. Each cycle only returns whole numbers for ore, and even with max skills, most ships using frigate sized miners such as the Venture and Pioneer lose a lot to rounding errors. Notably, this was a big reason people couldnāt use the fast-cycling Civilian Miner at higher levels, because despite its only slightly lower yield on paper, its 10 second cycle time meant it couldnāt extract large volume ores.
Suggestion: Reduce the volume of the largest ores while keeping their yield per m3 the same. Potentially normalize the m3 of all ores.
Or reduce all frigate mining ships to a single laser and double their current yield, similar to the Endurance.
Mining Critical Hits
Every cycle, your mining laser has a chance to return extra yield, with a base chance of seemingly 1% (No skills on a ship with no bonuses) and a yield bonus of +100% (So a single cycle gives double the ore). Can be increased to 1.5% chance and +150% yield with skill training. A T2 Survey Scanner gives an additional 20% bonus to both crit chance and amount, resulting in 1.8% chance to crit and +200% yield. This results in about 3.6% increased yield over time vs not factoring in crits.
Potentially, a mining burst charge exists on the test server and could double this or better, but itās currently not implemented. Assuming this would be the case, the maximum overall increase to yield critical hits would give would be about 10.8%, received by using a Consortium Issue Venture/Pioneerās +50% critical chance with the +100% increased critical chance from this theoretical boost used by a Porpoise (Higher for bigger command ships).
I think the idea for critical hits makes sense, but its implementation works it out to be a simple yield increase at the end of the day and it doesnāt really feel any different than normal mining. I donāt really find myself leaping for joy at a critical hit, assuming I even notice them in the first place beyond my hold filling up faster.
Suggestion: Find a way to work in user input to affect the chance of critical hits, such as needing to reposition oneās ship or cycle to a different rock once enough critical hits have been scored against the current one. This mechanic has potential for smaller ships to catch up to the larger ones in yield to narrow the gap and should be explored more. Critical hits also correct some of the issue above with high volume rocks and small mining modules. Critical chance is currently very, very low, even with investment.
Change critical hits not to provide more ore by units, but a higher quality type of ore that is more mineral dense. For example, a critical hit on a Gneiss rock would give a new version of Prismatic Gneiss which refines into five or ten times the amount of minerals that its regular version would. This makes a critical hit VERY attractive for miners who are mining without compression, since it effectively increases the size of their ore hold. It would also become viable to fish for critical hits to have more field time before needing to return to station and drop off ore.
Mineral Scanner
The new mineral scanner looks pretty but isnāt very useful. It does highlight individual rocks and shows a colored gradient for their value, but weāve lost the ability to see a readout of the surrounding asteroids in a belt at a glance. This makes it especially difficult to appraise the total amount of ore in a belt at a glance, requiring the player to look at and evaluate each rock manually.
One thing I donāt like about the mineral scanner is the mining critical bonus makes it almost a must to include on ships, which effectively reduces the mid slots that could be used for defensive modules. The yield increase isnāt much, but it adds up if youāre not using it.
Suggestion: Restore the old functionality in addition to the new one to provide the ore readout for nearby asteroids in a table format. Perhaps make the table look prettier and easier to parse by containing a total m3 amount of each ore type in the belt, along with an estimated belt value.
Replace the mining critical and critical yield bonus on the module with either a higher residue reduction or a laser range bonus, which would be a more even tradeoff against tank.
Prismaticite Sites
Only got to see this during the mass test, so I didnāt get to experiment much with the mechanics. Still looking for a new site to test.
Prismaticite Refining
It appears to work as it says on the tin, refining the Prismaticite directly gives a random mineral type. Refining in multiple batches gives multiple different types.
Looking at the reaction formulas, most seem to need an R4 moon ore product to run. Currently, this is Atmospheric Gasses, but a better option would be to use Silicates and Evaporite Deposits, which are used at a much lower rate currently than Atmospheric Gas and Hydrocarbons. On the test server, there was no indication for how much each reaction would yield, though potentially the cost in R4 products could be too high to justify its use.
Suggestion: Seems like a good system depending on value or need.
I just want to echo again something many players have mentioned in this thread. Mining criticals in their current implementation are not particularly exciting and mostly function as a passive yield increase. Tying them in to player actions that would greatly enhance the yield of a ship for a vigilant player has massive potential to close the gap between smaller ships and barges, singleboxes and multiboxes, and reward more active gameplay. It could even be used as a complement to traditional mining fleets, with barges/exhumers focusing on raw throughput of ore while the Venture and Pioneer work on extracting the most valuable parts of a belt that would otherwise be wasted by the brute force of larger ships.
I doubt this is the final implementation of the mechanic and its first debut is simply implementing the mechanic itself, but it has great potential if used well to really enhance the mining ecosystem by adding additional roles in fleets.
Regarding the ships:
Pioneer
A slightly bigger and more expensive Venture, the Pioneer is a nice step for miners on the path to greater things. Being alpha flyable, this also gives players a sense of progression rather than a large leap from Venture to Barge to Exhumer.
In practice, the Pioneer mines ore around 35% faster than a Venture, roughly the rate of an Expedition Frigate. It has the same yield over time for gas as the Venture and requires a third, expensive gas cloud scoop, but a bigger mining hold to store what it does mine which could make it potentially attractive for serious gas huffers.
One notable aspect of the Pioneer over the Venture is the ship has far more raw HP than its frigate cousin, standing on par with other destroyers. Although its fitting space is limited, the sizable amount of hull HP can make for a very tough ship especially with a Damage Control. With its cheap price point and destroyer-level EHP, it can weather both suicide ganks and hostiles outside of high sec better, giving it more time for fleet members to protect it or repair it.
In terms of the mining meta, the Pioneer will largely obsolete the Venture for ore mining operations except in one notable capacity: The lack of an innate +2 warp core stabilization. However, just like the Venture, the Pioneerās ore yield canāt hope to match any of the barges, especially the Covetor or Hulkās yield, which hurts its use for serious mining operations. As a way for alphas to somewhat close the gap between their omega peers though, the ship is a great step up from the Venture and serves its purpose well.
Overall, Iām pretty happy with the Pioneer, though it likely wonāt shake up the mining meta overall or open up new options for established fleets.
Venture Consortium Issue
The luxury model of the normal Venture. For its role as a mining ship, the only notable change is the increased critical chance, which gives a very minor yield increase, and a slightly bigger mining hold. The ship does get a bonus to salvage drones, which could be surprisingly handy if used to salvage more difficult wrecks such as sleepers. The extra cargo space is nice, allowing for cynos with lower skills and the ability to reasonably fit a mobile depot and refit in the ship without cargo rigs.
The increased defenses are nice, but it only brings the ship up to the durability of a Kestrel with an enhanced shield booster. While thereās space to fit a medium shield booster, the cap usage can make this difficult and necessitates a small battery to accomplish it outside of a MASB. The extra mid slot does open up a bigger buffer fit though, and I was able to get about 60% more EHP than the Venture while still fitting an afterburner at the cost of an increase in signature radius. The ship is still fragile though, especially when compared to the Navy versions of the empiresā frigates such as the Hookbill, and becomes even less durable when fitted with a Mining Laser Upgrade or Warp Core Stabilizer instead of a Damage Control.
I wouldāve said that this ship would be flown by alpha miners as a status symbol, but that will likely belong to the Pioneer Consortium Issue. The relatively high price tag for very little gain will probably deter most value focused miners and the ship will be a gank magnet in high sec due to its higher cost and low defenses allowing most cheaply fitted destroyers the ability to kill it before CONCORD shows up, provided they can get close enough. If priced the same as Navy frigate BPCs and bought for ORE LP, Iām guessing itāll cost about 18-20m ISK per ship, basically the price of an expedition frigate.
Suggestions: Increase base shield, armor, and hull HP to match Navy faction frigates to avoid alpha strikes destroying the ship before the boost bonus can be used.
Increase ship agility and speed and lower signature to better define its role vs the Pioneerāother than price point, what draw does the VCI bring for use?
Potentially increase the shipās warp speed by a role bonus to specialize it in chasing ore/gas at long distance. Useful when chasing Empire Border Asteroids or gas sites in high sec, where getting to the site quickly is important.
Consider reducing the LP cost due to the value of ORE LP, or move it to a different LP store to lower the price on the ship.
Pioneer Consortium Issue
Most of the same applies to the PCI as the VCI above. Itās a more expensive ship that offers little yield increase and mining hold capacity in exchange for a whole lot more ISK. A status symbol for alpha miners, and likely to attract negative attention in high sec and beyond from potential threats.
The ship is tougher than the normal Pioneer owing to its base HP increase and extra mid slot. Should the ship get attacked, itās more capable of weathering the assault than the base model. However, its higher price is likely to attract more attention in the first place. The boost bonus could lead to some interesting fits with a dual MASB being able to boost through a surprising amount of damage.
Suggestions: Reduce the price in LP or remove it from OREās LP store to somewhere cheaper if thatās where the BPC will be sold. Other than that, itās a solid ship and upgrade from the normal Pioneer.
Outrider
A mining command destroyer, the Outrider comes with a 20,000 m3 mining hold, a bonus to mining lasers, and a bonus to mining foreman burst strength. Its yield is not as great as the Pioneer, but compared to the Porpoise it can actually mine something. Its price is significantly cheaper too.
This ship could fit in for a solo player or very small gang that would otherwise be unable to or inefficiently use mining foreman boosts. However, unlike the Porpoise, it offers no compression, so its range is greatly limited to locations where ore can be dropped off and retrieved easily. In a world where compression wasnāt such a big deal for mining fleets, this would be less of a dealbreaker.
Although the ship has no bonus to gas yield, it might make a great gas cloud huffer since compression isnāt needed as much for gas. This also opens up more fitting options for the low slots since Mining Laser Upgrades arenāt needed. The tractor beam bonuses are a questionable benefit, as although I assume the ship is designed to tractor in the fleetās ore from mining, its ore hold is far too small to use for this purpose.
One notable thing about the ship on the test server is the absolutely massive CPU draw mining lasers put on it, leading to the shipās large for its class CPU pool to be massively overtaxed. This really limits its utility as a mining ship when fitting for its role. The ship is also missing T2 resistances, which while not surprising for ORE ships, make it more squishy than other command destroyers in its class.
Suggestions: Reduce the CPU fitting requirements of mining lasers by -50% or more.
Increase gas cloud scoop yield to make it more attractive to gas fleets.
Add in a T2 resist profile.
how do you test the new ships on the test server? i went to jita on sisi but none were available
Alternatively the game could both round up and down per cycle, chance-based, like they also do for the crit mining yield on ice.
Are you sure they arenāt doing that already? I didnāt check.
None are for sale yet on the test server.
An elegant solution, to be sure, Iād be for that. But no, itās always the same rounded down yield each time. Tested with a civilian miner a long time ago, but occasionally it reared its head in our public mining fleets when new players would try and mine Arkonor in a Venture.
how did you get it to fit a 3rd gas scoop? i got an error saying it wont allow more than two when simulating a fit on sisi.
You can fit one gas cloud scoop per level of gas cloud harvesting. If youāre alpha, youāre limited to level 2 only. It doesnāt really get any additional gas yield over a venture though, so youāre not missing anything.
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Will Outrider able to take Rorqual conduit / industrial bridge?